Scott in his quarters at the British base camp in Antarctica, 1911. Photograph: PA

One hundred years ago today, Captain Robert Falcon Scott was trudging through the endless snow on his epic journey to the south pole. "The marches are terribly monotonous," he wrote in his diary on Thursday 28 December 1911. "One's thoughts wander occasionally to pleasanter scenes and places, but the necessity to keep the course, or some hitch in the surface, quickly brings them back."

On Christmas Eve, Scott's team had treated themselves to a special meal of horse meat flavoured with onion and curry powder. "Then an arrowroot, cocoa and biscuit hoosh sweetened; then a plum pudding; then cocoa with raisins, and finally a dessert of caramels and ginger," wrote Scott. "After the feast it was difficult to move. Wilson and I couldn't finish our share of plum pudding. We have all slept splendidly and feel thoroughly warm – such is the effect of full feeding."

His crew would battle the terrain and the elements for three more weeks before reaching the South Pole. Their endeavour will be commemorated in an exhibition at the Natural History Museum (NHM) that opens on 20 January, three days after the 100th anniversary of the date they reached their goal.

For the first time in a century, artefacts such as clothes, sledges and pickaxes used by the trekkers will be reunited with the scientific specimens they and their colleagues collected on the Terra Nova Expedition.

The centrepiece of Scott's Last Expedition is a re-creation of the wooden hut at the base camp. Here, conditions were far more comfortable than the blizzards and crevasses endured by the team Scott was leading to the south pole. "They had china and metal forks and it was basically what you would expect on a ship," says Elin Simonsson of the NHM. "They were eating quite well. Every day their cook, Clissold, would cook them a three-course meal and often they had penguin or seal meat and they would make different stews."

The base camp's stores were filled with tonnes of jams, cheeses and tinned vegetables. "They also had alcohol with them so they could have a glass of wine or champagne every now and then," says Simonsson.

The NHM exhibition will highlight the untold stories of the Terra Nova expedition. "Until now, the whole story of Scott's last expedition has been overshadowed by the really gripping story of the south pole journey, which is a really fantastic story of human endeavour, but there was so much more going on and we're trying to show the expedition as a scientific expedition," says Simonsson.

Scott had led an expedition to Antarctica a decade before, and wanted to go back. "He wanted to make sure he reached the south pole and was the first person to do it," says Simonsson. "He also wanted to continue his scientific programme and, to do that, he recruited quite a big team of scientists to go with him."

Scientific expeditions to Antarctica were not new, but Scott's had the biggest scientific programme ever planned. His team of scientists would study weather, zoology and even conduct experiments in the relatively new discipline of glaciology. "They really made a great contribution to what was known about Antarctica," said Simonsson.

At the NHM, visitors will walk through Scott's planning of the journey before entering a re-creation of the hut at base camp. "We tell the story of everyday life and activity around the hut, from what they ate to what they did in their spare time to their scientific work," says Simonsson. "When you leave this safe space of their home in the winter, and 25 men stayed in this relatively small hut in the first winter, then you start exploring the kind of work they did outside. That includes the pole journey too and we will show scientific specimens but also scientific notebooks alongside sledges, clothing and skis and different kinds of cookers they had with them."

Samples of the crew's oilskin-covered trousers and coats will be on display – all designed and made by the top fashion houses of the day. "At the time, these items were made by Burberry," said Simonsson. "You also had other companies such as Jaeger and Wolseley providing clothing to expeditions."

On their treks, the explorers used sleeping bags lined with reindeer fur. Though warm, these tended to trap moisture and, in the mornings, the bags would freeze solid. To get back into them at night, Scott and his crew would have to slowly thaw their bags out as they squeezed themselves back in, a process could take several hours.

Scott wrote his last diary entry on 29 March 1912, on his way back from the South Pole after the crushing realisation that the rival team led by Roald Amundsen had reached the pole first. At that stage, his team was only 20km from a depot that contained the food and fuel they so desperately needed to survive. When Scott's party did not return to base camp by the time the Antarctic winter had set in, the remainder of the Terra Nova expedition knew that they must have perished.

"When spring returned, they went out to look for them and in November 1912 found them alongside their letters and diaries, and they felt the best thing to do would be to leave them there in the Antarctic wilderness," said Simonsson. "And they're still there today, in the ice, slowly floating towards the sea."

Diary extracts

Here where we are camped the snow is worse than I have ever seen it, but we are in a hollow. Every step here one sinks to the knees and the uneven surface is obviously insufficient to support the sledges. Perhaps this wind is a blessing in disguise, already it seems to be hardening the snow. All this soft snow is an aftermath of our prolonged storm. Hereabouts Shackleton found hard blue ice. It seems an extraordinary difference in fortune, and at every step S.'s [Shackleton's] luck becomes more evident.

I looked round and found the second sledge halted some way in rear – evidently someone had gone into a crevasse ... It appears that Lashly went down very suddenly, nearly dragging the crew with him. The sledge ran on and jammed the span so that the Alpine rope had to be got out and used to pull Lashly to the surface again. Lashly says the crevasse was 50 feet deep and 8 feet across, in form U, showing that the word 'unfathomable' can rarely be applied. Lashly is 44 to-day and as hard as nails. His fall has not even disturbed his equanimity.

Since the 21st we have had a continuous gale from W.S.W. and S.W. We had fuel to make two cups of tea apiece and bare food for two days on the 20th. Every day we have been ready to start for our depot 11 miles away, but outside the door of the tent it remains a scene of whirling drift. I do not think we can hope for any better things now. We shall stick it out to the end, but we are getting weaker, of course, and the end cannot be far.

It seems a pity, but I do not think I can write more.

R. Scott

For God's sake look after our people.

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